The 21-year-old singer gave a speech about the "pressures" of fame at the first annual We Day California event at the Oracle Arena on Wednesday (March 26).

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"I'm surrounded by people who are supposed to guide me and some of them have and others haven't," she told hundreds of young audience members. "They pressure me: 'You gotta be sexy, you gotta be cute, you gotta be nice, you gotta be all these things'."

She continued: "You can all relate. You all have pressure that you have to deal with every day - with school, with work, with friends, with parents, with family. They tell me what to wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be.

"Until recently I had given into that pressure, I lost sight of who I was. I listened to opinions of people and I tried to change who I am because I thought others would accept me for it. And I realised I don't know how to be anything but myself.

"All I really want you to know is that you are changing the world, I'm not changing the world, you're changing the world and that's amazing."

The We Day event is organised by the Free the Children charity group, and aims to motivate young people to be involved in local and global issues.

She added: "I'm here to just tell you my path so that you can hopefully take something away from it, because I don't like being honest with press and interviews. I like being honest with you directly.

"I'm sure all of you have been told that you don't have what it takes and that you may not be good enough... when deep down, it's all you want to do, you want to be part of something great, you want to make something great.

"It crushes you when people try to tell you that you're not good enough."

Last month, it was revealed that Gomez was briefly admitted to Dawn at The Meadows in Arizona for two weeks from January 5, but her spokesperson later insisted that her stay was not related to substance abuse problems.